Spring clip



June 21, 1949. w. H. NEELY SPRING CLIP Filed Sept. 16, 1944 WILLIRH H-NEELY Patented June 21, 1949 SPRING CLIP William H. Neely, Cleveland,Ohio, assignor to The Universal Wire Spring Company, Cleveland, Ohio, acorporation of Ohio Application September 16, 1944, Serial No. 554,521

3 Claims. 1

This invention relates in general to upholstered spring constructionsfor furniture and automobile seat structures, the spring assemblies ofwhich are pretensioned by their cover means generally tightly drawn overthe assemblies and attached to the frame work of the upholsteredconstructions.

The principal object of the present invention is the provision of meansfor directly and removably attaching a cover to the frame work ofupholstered spring constructions of the type described without the useof tacks and tacking strips, so as to expedite and facilitate assemblyand disassembly of these spring constructions.

Another object of the invention is the provision of attachment means ofthe type referred to above, which attachment means consist of curvedelastic clips shaped to partly encircle and hug the rails of the framework of upholstered spring constructions, whereby each clip at its oneend is secured to its rail and at its other end shaped to a hookarranged with its open end opposite to the rail so as to be closedthereby.

A further object of the invention is the pro vision of curved elasticclips of the type referred to above, each of which partly encircles andyieldingly hugs a rail of the frame work of an upholstered springconstruction, and each of which has its one end formed with asubstantially V-shaped radial extensionco-operating with slotted meansin said rail for non-rotatably and releasably securing the clip thereto,and its other end shaped to a substantially semi-circular hook exposingits open portion to the rail to be closed thereby. In this constructionthe clips preferably include in their V-shaped extensions lockingrecesses contacting and engaging the edges of the slotted means in theirrails to permit yielding of the hook carrying portions of these clipswithout danger of disengaging the clips from their rails.

With these and other objects in view, the invention has certain othermarked superiorities which clearly distinguish it from presently knownstructures. These improvements or characteristics embodying certainnovel features of construction are clearly set forth in the appendedclaims, and several preferred forms of embodiment of the invention usedin combination with an upholstered spring construction are hereinaftershown with reference to the accompanying drawing forming part ofthespecification.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an elastic clip 2 constructed inaccordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary front view of an upholstered spring constructionwith clips of the type shown in Fig. 1 for attaching a cover member tothe frame work of the spring construction;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view through Fig. 2, the section being taken online 3-3 of said figure;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view through the rail of the frame workof an upholstered spring construction showing a clip of the typedisclosed in Fig. 1 attached to the rail;

Fig. 5 is a rear view of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a somewhat modified form of clip;

Fig. 7 is a sectional view similar to Fig. 4, with the exception thatthe cli is of the type disclosed in Fig. 5;

Fig. 8 is a rear view of Fig. 7; and

Fig. 9 is a perspective view of still another modified form of clipwhich is made of steel wire.

Referring now in detail to the exemplified form of the invention shownin Figs. 1 through 5 of the drawing, reference numeral '2 denotes acurved clip made of strip material. Clip 2 at its one end 3 is attachedas by welding to a tubular rail 4 and curved on a radius smaller-thanthe radius of said rail, so as to yieldingly hug same and force end 5 ofclip 2 toward said rail. This end is formed to a hook by a semi-circularrecess 6 in the inner surface of the clip crosswise thereof, whichrecess is radially related to said clip and closed by the wall of rail 4when end 5 contacts the rail.

The thus constructed clip, when secured to a rail, can readily be sprungback for free access to recess 6 to permit mounting of the edge of cover1 'in said recess. To facilitate such mounting, cover I is formed with awelted edge 8 by folding the material of the cover on itself over a cord9 and sewing the material down at It. A thus constructed welted edge isreadily retained in recess 6, as the clip, when released, tends to forceits hook-shaped end 5 toward the rail and prevent displacement of thewelted edge from said recess.

The modified form of clip ll disclosed in Figs. 6 through 8 embodies ahook-shaped end l2, identical in construction with that of thehookshaped end 5 of clip 2 shown in Figs. 1 through 5, and an attachmentend ll formed by a V- shaped radially arranged member I5 integrallyextended from said clip near its attachment end. Member l5 co-operateswith an elongated slot IS in rail H for properly anchoring the clip tosaid rail, as will be readily seen from an inspection of Fig. 7.Preferably, member I5 is formed with recesses l8 and 19 arranged in thearms 20 and 2| of said member for co-operation and engagement with theedges of slot [6 and, in addition, member l5 has extended from its outerarm 20 a short lateral extension or tongue 22 aligned with the curvedsurface of clip II to prevent dislodging of the clip from its rail i1when the hook-shaped end ll of clip II is sprung away from rail I! forinterlocking with the welted edge 8 of cover 1.

The modified form of construction of a clip 23 shown in Fig. 9 issubstantially identical to the construction of the clip H shown in Figs.-6 though 8, with the exception that the clip is made of steel wire andhas its end portions 24 and 25 inclined to each other to facilitateinserting of these portions into the slot of a rail.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. A clip for directly and removably attaching cover means tolongitudinally slotted tubular frame work of upholstered springconstructions embodying a curved body portion formed of strip steel andadapted to yieldingly hug a tubular rail, a substantiallysemi-circuiarly shaped extension at one end of said body portion formedcrosswise thereof so that the end of the body portion is bent in adirection other than that of the curvature of the body portion on aradius substantially smaller than the radius of said curvature, andv-shaped attachment means integrally formed in said body portion nearits other end and extended radially inwardly into said body portion,said attachment means being adapted to be extended into a slot oflongitudinally slotted frame work for non-rotatably and releasablysecuring said clip to such slotted tubular frame work.

2. A resilient clip embodying a curved body portion formed of stripsteel and secured at one end to a rail of the framework of anupholstered spring construction, said body portion being dimensioned toyieldingly hug the said rail, and a semi-circularly shaped end portionintegrally extended from one end of said body portion crosswise thereofso as to provide an inwardly facing channel arranged radially withrespect to said body portion, said clip permitting hugging of a rail ofthe frame work of a spring construction and securing of a cover memberto the rail by seating the welted edge of the cover member in said endportion and holding same in position by clamping action between said endportion and the rail.

3. A clip as described in claim 1, wherein the extension at said one endof said body portion is radially arranged with respect thereto, andwherein the V-shaped attachment means is grooved crosswise to permit itslocking to a rail of longitudinally slotted tubular frame work byengagement of its grooved portion with the side edges of a slot in arail of such frame work.

WILLIAM H. NEELY.

REFERENCES CITED- The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 810,004 Tabler Jan. 16, 1906967,628 Franklin Aug. 16, 1910 1,087,664 Keller Feb. 17, 1914 1,099,034Girard June 2, 1914 1,281,440 Vinette Oct. 15, 1918 1,313,973 Young Aug.26, 1919 1,455,754 Trimble May 15, 1923 1,457,658 Green June 5, 19231,544,872 Trimble July 7, 1925 1,650,294 Palmer Nov, 22, 1927 1,665,534D'Arcy Apr. 10, 1928 1,888,781 Wolf Nov. 22, 1932 FOREIGN PATENTS NumberCountry Date 376,108 Great Britain July 7, 1932

